CHICAGO — One day might bleed into another for a drycleaning company, but sometimes customers come around who make an impression — to say the least.

In Part 1 of this series, we shared tales of surprise restorations of museum-quality wardrobes and customers who mistook their dry cleaners for “ATMs.” Today, we continue with more tales from the front counter.

The Elevator Mystery

Michael Harris, owner of Oceanside Cleaners in Jacksonville, Florida, learned that video surveillance is worth its weight in gold — especially when dealing with the occasional “missing” order.

“We have a customer, a really good customer, who’s been coming to us for more than 30 years,” Harris says. Once, the customer came in insisting he was missing a pair of pants. 

“He said, ‘Mike, I know for a fact I put this in, and we’re missing it,’” Harris says. “I said, ‘OK, Tom, let me go back, because we video everything.’”

The video clearly showed the customer had picked up the order. It was a delicate situation, Harris says, showing a client they’re wrong without damaging the relationship. Still, the customer insisted he didn’t have it, so, to keep the relationship on healthy terms, Harris agreed to replace it.

A few weeks went by and Harris got a call.

“He says, ‘Mike, we found the clothes,’” Harris says. “They have a mansion on the ocean with an elevator in it, and as they were unloading their car, they got a call from their friends to go to dinner, so they just threw the order in the elevator and forgot about it.”

The couple doesn’t use the elevator much, so the next time they used it, they noticed the order still sitting there. This time, the customer made it right for his cleaner.

“He calls me and says, ‘I will never question you again. Not only am I going to buy you a bottle of wine, I’m taking you to Italy to get it,’” Harris says.

Building Empires, One Shirt at a Time

Kermit Engh, owner of Fashion Cleaners in Omaha, Nebraska, has had the privilege of watching some of his customers grow from small-business owners into titans of industry.

“This was back when I was first getting started, 30-some years ago,” Engh says. “There was a gentleman who came in every Monday and dropped off seven shirts. On Friday, (he) picked up seven shirts.”

The two would chat every week. The customer was trying to start a small software company related to stock investing, and he was working hard to get it off the ground.

“His name was Joe Ricketts,” Engh says. “Joe Ricketts was the founder and owner of TD Ameritrade. He’s currently (one of the owners) of the Chicago Cubs.”

The multibillionaire also owns Wrigley Field, extensive land in Wyoming, and other holdings.

“Nice guy,” Engh says. “They’re still customers when they’re in town.”

Another customer of Engh’s told him a story that shaped how he thinks about his customer base. He was a draftsman who worked for two homebuilders who were partners. When the two got into a spat and decided to go their separate ways, he suddenly didn’t have a job.

“Dennis decided he needed to feed his family,” Engh says, “so he went into all the home plans that he had drawn and decided to create a catalog of plans.”

Long before the internet, the man created a catalog that could be altered but was primarily standard custom homes. That became the beginnings of a company called Design Basics, and that company made him a billionaire.

These stories have inspired Engh to keep growing and learning from his successful clients. “What was their secret? How did they do what they did?”

Above and Beyond

Jen Whitmarsh of Snappy Dry Cleaning in Buffalo, New York, looks forward to serving customers who tell her like it is, because it gives her valuable insight that she can’t get anywhere else.

“The customers who share their feedback with the services we provide always stand out to me, because that shows that they truly have our business at heart,” she says. “These are the ones who say, ‘This was great,’ or ‘You know what, just so you know, this didn’t come back that well, and I just want to make you aware of it.’ These customers aren’t going anywhere. They just want to make us better.”

And, while Whitmarsh wants her company to go above and beyond what’s expected, sometimes it’s her customers who exceed expectations.

“We do have some customers who reward our team members,” she says. “We’ve had a couple of customers in the past month who sent us donuts, who sent us breakfast, who sent pizza to the team, just to show some appreciation randomly. Those are the customers who completely stand out and leave a special place in your heart, especially when they’re doing it for the team. They’re not just trying to reach out to me. They’re doing it for the team, who are truly the ones who leave a mark.”

Come back Thursday for the conclusion of this feature, where we’ll look at tales from the Big Apple. For Part 1 of this series, click HERE.